Transformational Leadership Theory and Practice - Essay Example

Transformational Leadership Theory and Practice Name: Student no: Institution of Learning: Name of Instructor: City or state of Residence 1. Introduction This study mainly focuses on the role of transformational leadership in achievement of the goals of an organization. It focuses on investigation of characteristics of transformational leadership that can contribute to the success of the functions of an organization such as management of other employees. In addition, it provides a number of assumptions made during implementation of transformational leadership as well as the strengths and limitations of this type of leadership. This ensures a better insight is created with regards to transformational leadership so that organizations can implement similar strategies in management of their functions. Leadership has been defined as a process which involves creating an influence in a group of individuals for the purpose of attainment of a common goal (Klinsontorn, 2007). It is required that an effective leader must influence his associates positively so that the goals of an organization can be attained. Various leadership styles have been used to assess performance of managers with the focus on finding the most suitable leadership style that should be implemented in organizations. an example of such leadership style is transformational leadership. 2. Transformation leadership Transformational leadership is a form of leadership that transcends other leadership styles and has an outlook of ‘self-defining’. It is a leadership style that tends to be self-defining by having internalized values (Kotlyar and Karakowsky 2007). It also involves going beyond personal payoffs and risking loss of respect and focusing on actions that a person considers to be right. This study mainly focuses on the role of transformational leadership in achievement of the goals of an organization. It focuses on investigation of characteristics of transformational leadership that can contribute to the success of the functions of an organization such as management of other employees. In addition, it provides a number of assumptions made during implementation of transformational leadership as well as the strengths and limitations of this type of leadership. This ensures a better insight is created with regards to transformational leadership so that organizations can implement similar strategies in management of their functions. Another major characteristic of transformational leadership is servant leadership. This is where the leader tires to empower employees of an organization while acting as self-sacrifice in facilitating the goals of the company. This implies that the leader participates in creation of a collective vision for the purpose of serving employees and stakeholders in the organization (Mumford and Strange 2013). The assumption of this leadership style is that those who are governed are under the control of their supervisor so that they can apply similar principles used by their leaders to improve their competencies in provision of a particular services and products. In addition, servant leadership qualities are demonstrated through subordinate development (Northouse 2010). This is where continual development of subordinates is viewed by the leader as healthy for the performance of the organization. It is a process where the leader demonstrates fairness during performance evaluation so that the process is effective and well received by the subordinates. 3. Analysis of Application of Transformational leadership in employee empowerment Ignacio was a manager in charge of a number of employees in the organization in which he worked. The department headed by Ignacio enabled him delegate duties to his subordinates. However, Ignacio put more effort by coaching his colleagues who he thought would not do the job well as he would do when he did not delegate the task to them. In addition, Ignacio was willing to risk mistakes and criticism so that he could participate in the development of the associates for the purpose of effective performance of the work in future. He also cooperated with others for the purpose of creation of a long-term perspective on what needed to be achieved in the careers individually and in collective functions so that each individual’s perspective and potential could be enhanced. One aspect of Ignacio’s behavior is that he provides coaching to his colleagues. This is achieved by elaborating the impacts of the leader in contributing to transformation of his colleagues by making them more competitive in their areas of operations. The process of coaching his employees ensured the employees were reminded on the areas where focus needed to be put so that they could achieve success in their areas of operation (Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt and Jonsen 2010). This is according to transformational leadership idea which involves transforming the capability of an employee to be n more productive and acquiring more skills in their areas of work. It is observed that Ignacio makes use of transformational leadership to ensure success is achieved in the area of management where he is involved. For instance, he uses the principle of transformation to lead his colleagues at the work place by motivating them to improve their skills in the areas where they are placed. This ensures they gain additional skills which are important in performance of their duties. In addition he uses the principle of trust to assign his employees with tasks which are meant for him so that they can perform those tasks so that they can improve their competencies in performance of those tasks. Another characteristic of transformational leadership demonstrated by Ignacio is that he leads by example. This is where he performs his tasks on schedule and effectively so that high excellence is achieved. This acts as an example to other employees to perform their tasks in a similar manner. As a result, they improve their competence based on transformational leadership techniques used by Ignacio. This is because, according to transformational leadership, a leader must lead by example where he provides a guide on the manner in which his followers need to conduct themselves and perform tasks (Kotlyar & Karakowsky, 2006). The evaluation of the manager can be observed in the manner in which his employees show improvement in the activities they do. For instance, it is observed that initially, the manager could perform some tasks while other employees could not. However, as a result of transformational leadership, the employees have acquired the skills to perform those tasks in the same way that their manager could perform them. Another area of evaluation of the work of Ignacio can be observed in the member in whom he fostered cooperation among his employees. Initially, his employees could perform their tasks individually without cooperation with other employees this resulted into them experiencing a number of challenges in solving work problems. However, due to motivation of Ignacio that they have to cooperate, the employees have been cooperative amongst themselves and they have been able to overcome a number of challenges experienced in their department. This has resulted into increased output of this department and a general improvement in the company profitability. This is according to transformational leadership which requires that a transformational leader is one who is concerned about continuous improvement of the competence of his employees by ensuring they develop a culture of cooperation and assisting one another to improve (Lussier &Achua, 2013). The theory of transformational leadership is important in this evaluation because it provides the effectiveness of the vision of a leader towards transformation of the performance of other employees. It also shows the role of charismatic leadership such as continuous improvement in enhancing the competence of employees and also provides the strategy that leaders can use to lead by example. This is achieved by providing information such as actions that leaders need to focus on so that their followers develop a culture of improvement and learn from them (Mumford & Strange, 2013). Furthermore, Ignacio demonstrated the aspect of transformational leadership by attending to each individual employee so that their needs, interests and problems they experienced could be addressed. This is a demonstration of transformational leadership because he ensured each employee was enabled to overcome personal challenges in the department so that they could be equally competent as their manager in the department in which they were working (Kotlyar and Karakowsky 2007). As a result, each team member obtained skills which provided them with the competence to work in the organization thus improving the level of output in their activities. The characteristics presented above by Ignacio can contribute to success of his department greatly. This is because through acting as role models, encourager, innovator and a coach, the strategies required for transformation of an organization into a better organization can be achieved so that individuals can be productive and successful. There are a number of strengths and weaknesses of transformational leadership. An example of a strength of this leadership style is that it creates vision in the leader by enabling the leader assess the current situation in an organization and come up with a better vision that enables improvement in the organization (Kouzes and Posner 1999). This is followed by communication the vision to leaders in the company and employees in the company to create awareness about the vision. This enables transformational leaders deal with situations faced in companies based on their ability to see bigger pictures. Strength of transformational leadership style is that it has the ability to inspire and motivate an individual (Stahl, Maznevski, ML, Voigt and Jonsen 2010). This is because the individual develops passion and enthusiasm so that the individual can optimize their performances. For instance, during times of challenges in an organization, there is a reliance on passion to ensure the vision is inculcated in the employees so that they perform their tasks with focus on achieving the goals of the organization. This leadership style has a number of weaknesses which have an impact on its effectiveness. While the idea of transformational leadership is good to a number of people in leadership positions, it has been observed that this leadership style does not implement a clear leadership style such as its vision, skills and motivation of the subordinates. In addition, this study assumes that the leader involved in the use of this leadership style is flawed due to its assumption that the idea of being a transformational leader is a ‘personal trait’ (Lussier and Achua 2013). When a leader is defined based on their personal attributes, it results into a shift of the idea from leadership to a personal trait. Another limitation of transformational leadership ids that it is flawed and subject to democratic elitism where emphasis are put on the role of the leader to make a decision regarding the visions of an organization. This is because transformational leaders in certain cased need the guidance of organized and detail-oriented groups of people such as executives and team members whose contribution enables movement of the transformational leader’s mission towards the goal. This implies that if there is a short oversight, a derailment of an effectively-long vision of the company. In organizations where this leadership style has been implemented with the expectation of instant results have in most cases been frustrated (Mumford, MD and Strange 2013). In addition, transformational leadership is not effective for leaders who are not good communicators or have the charisma despite having the skills and experience required to be in charge of employees. It is also a form of leadership that assumes one leader and ignoring the fact that in most organizations, framework of leaders is created so that groups are motivated to reach their goals. There is also the possibility that this form of leadership can be abused by leaders. Thus, in addition to providing transformational leadership, there is the need to have string ethics, character and values with the goal of achieving the good of all (Northouse 2010). This can be observed by cases where transformational leadership has been used successfully by leaders as well as where leaders have used this leadership style wrongly. Those who used this leadership style in the right way include martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela while those who used it wrongly include Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. Conclusion Leaders such as managers are required to apply values and principles which ensure employees perform their tasks in a dignified manner and improve their competence in the areas of work. Transformational leadership is an important factor in ensuring success in organizational management. It is s leadership style that can be efficient during crisis and situations where there is the need to take quick actions to achieve a particular result. This is because, in most cases, there is the possibility of success in application of this leadership style. It is also a recommendation that leadership should not be focused on achieving individual gains by acting as a role model to followers as well as having strong values with little regard for criticism in the activities performed by an individual. However, this study shows that leaders who intend to use transformational leadership styles in their organizations must have strong ethics and positive values focused on the benefits of the organization and improving the capability of employees. If these demands of transformational leadership are not met, there is a high chance of using the leadership style in a wrong way which can be detrimental to the leader, his associates and the entire organization. References Alimo-Metcalfe, B. & Alban-Metcalfe, J. 2001. ‘The development of a new Transformational Leadership Questionnaire’. The Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 74, 1-27. Klinsontorn, S (2007). The influence of leadership styles on organizational commitment and employee performances [Dissertation]. Nova Southeastern University, USA. Kotlyar, I. & Karakowsky, L. 2006. Leading Conflict? Linkages Between Leader Behaviors and Group Conflict.Small Group Research, Vol. 37, No. 4, 377-403 Kotlyar, I., & Karakowsky, L.2007. Falling Over Ourselves to Follow the Leader. Journal of Leadership &Organizational Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, 38-49 Kouzes, J.,Posner, B. 1999. "Encouraging the Heart." San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. 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Woolley, L, Caza, A, & Levy, L 2011, Authentic leadership and follower development psychological capital, positive work climate, and gender, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 438-448. Read More